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Fossil Friday Roundup: December 28, 2018

Featured Image: Experimental lithic-tool damage on goat bones under SEM. From Wiest et al. (2018). CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

  • The Las Vegas Formation (USGS)
  • Recurrent hardgrounds and their significance for intra-basinal correlations: a case study of upper Bathonian rocks from the western margin of the Indian craton (Journal of Paleogeography)
  • An endemic flora of dispersed spores from the Middle Devonian of Iberia (Papers in Paleontology)
  • Phylogeography of western Mediterranean Cymbalaria (Plantaginaceae) reveals two independent long-distance dispersals and entails new taxonomic circumscriptions (Scientific Reports)
  • From pristine aragonite to blocky calcite: Exceptional preservation and diagenesis of cephalopod nacre in porous Cretaceous limestones (PLOS ONE)
  • A new partial skeleton of a palaeospinacid shark (Neoselachii, Synechodontiformes) from the Albian of northern France, with a review of the taxonomic history of Early Cretaceous species of Synechodus Woodward, 1888 (Geodiversitas)
  • A new atoposaurid crocodylomorph from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA (Geology of the Intermountain West)
  • The Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) from late Quaternary underwater cave deposits in the Dominican Republic. (American Museum novitates)
  • A new record of Dromomeron romeri Irmis et al., 2007 (Lagerpetidae) from the Chinle Formation of Arizona, U.S.A. (PaleoBios)
  • New ichnotaxa of vertebrate burrows form the Salt Wash Member, Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, southeastern Utah (USA) (ASGP)
  • Ichnotaxonomy as a science (ASGP)
  • Ichnofossil assemblages and palaeosols of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, southeastern Utah (USA): Implications for depositional controls and paleoclimate (ASGP)
  • Scrutinizing Barremian coprolite inclusions to record digestive strategies (ASGP)
  • Dinosaur Behaviour in an Early Jurassic palaeoecosystem – Uppermost Elliot Formation, Ha Nohana, Lesotho (ASGP)
  • Convoluted nasal passages function as efficient heat exchangers in ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia: Thyreophora) (PLOS ONE)
  • Descripción taxonómica de Camelops hesternus, de arroyo La Muela, Baja California Sur, México (Paleontología Mexicana)
  • Paradise lost: Evidence for a devastating metabolic bone disease in an insular Pleistocene deer (International Journal of Paleopathology)
  • Nuevo registro de los caballos del Pleistoceno Equus conversidens y E. mexicanus en San Luis Potosí, México (Paleontología Mexicana)
  • A new elephantoid dental specimen from the Miocene of Kruševac Basin in Central Serbia (Geološki anali Balkanskoga poluostrva)
  • Dietary versatility of Early Pleistocene hominins (PNAS)
  • Ochre and pigment use at Hohle Fels cave: Results of the first systematic review of ochre and ochre-related artefacts from the Upper Palaeolithic in Germany (PLOS ONE)
  • Morphological characteristics of preparator air-scribe marks: Implications for taphonomic research (PLOS ONE)
  • Concept drift over geological times: predictive modeling baselines for analyzing the mammalian fossil record (Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists, March 15–17, 2019, University of Oregon (Link)
  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30-June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • The skeletal artistry of the paddlefish skull (SVPOW)
  • Your Friends The Titanosaurs, part 7.5: Baalsaurus mansillai (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • How Did Flight Change Brain Shape in Dinosaurs? (AMNH)

Methods and Musings:

  • New Osteological and Phylogenetic Review of the Triassic Loricatan Prestosuchus chiniquensis from Brazil (Chinleana)
  • Things to Make and Do, Part 25: cleaning bird vertebrae (SVPOW)
  • No, Cretaceous sharks did not leap from the water to eat flying pterosaurs (Mark Witton)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Book review – End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • The mystery of the microfossil Christmas cards | Curator of Micropaleontology (NHM)

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